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OVERVIEW: Last night, Muriel Hall won in the Bow and Dunbarton special election by nearly 16% against Chris Lins and the Chris Sununu political machine. Bow and Dunbarton voters came out to support Muriel in massive numbers for this special election. Hall even won by 4% more than President Biden did in this swing district. It’s clear that Muriel will stand up to the NH GOP and Chris Sununu in Concord. While Republicans continue to play political games in the State House, Muriel will be a champion of workers’ rights, public education, and health care.
BACKGROUND:
With Extremely High Turnout for a Special Election, Hall Won by 4% More Than Biden in Republican Leaning District
President Biden won Bow and Dunbarton by 11% and Hall won by 15.7% -- meaning Hall won by more than 4% than Biden did in 2020. The district also contains 5% more registered Republicans than registered Democrats.
Turnout was extraordinarily high for a special election at 36%.
In just a few short weeks, Hall was able to raise $15,000 in grassroots donations and engaged with over 3,000 voters in Bow and Dunbarton.
The NH GOP and National Right-Wing Groups Pulled Out All the Stops and Still Lost
Make Liberty Win -- a right wing group based in the Washington, D.C. area spent over $30,000 in this race according to filings from the NH Secretary of State.
Hall’s GOP opponent sent out thousands of negative mailers intended to smear Representative-Elect Hall -- a lifelong Granite Stater, longtime Bow and Dunbarton community member, and beloved teacher of 32 at the Bow Memorial School. The mailers compared her to the “D.C. swamp” multiple times.
Despite the influx of money and negative campaign literature, Hall won by a landslide.
Voters Reject the NH GOP Agenda
Muriel Hall’s landslide victory was a referendum on the NH GOP’s anti-choice, anti-worker, anti-public education agenda. In the Bow and Dunbarton special election yesterday, the biggest issues were worker’s rights and education.
Voters sided with public education and rejected school vouchers. On the campaign trail, Muriel Hall said that her first priority would be opposing school vouchers in the state budget. “Public education is at risk,” she said. Hall’s victory shows that New Hampshire voters stand in strong opposition to a Devos-esque school voucher scheme -- a key GOP priority.
Hall, a lifetime member of the National Education Association, secured the endorsement of NEA-New Hampshire, Granite State Teamsters, and SEA-SEIU 1984. Much of the legislation currently being pushed by the NH GOP puts workers at risk and electing Muriel shows that voters are rejecting that anti-worker agenda.
Hall’s victory makes it clear that voters are rejecting the NH GOP.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Voters are tired of Chris Sununu and GOP control in Concord and their unpopular policies like Devos-esque school voucher programs that siphon money away from public schools. Despite the GOP bringing in tens of thousands of dollars from out of state special interests, this was a decisive victory for Democrats. Muriel Hall’s extremely high turnout special election shows that Granite State voters are fed up with the NH GOP are going to show up to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in 2022.